Exposing Pyongyang's Prison State

North Korea is frequently referred to as a "gulag nation," but that must seem like empty rhetoric to the hundreds of thousands of North Koreans who live—and in many cases die—in actual prison camps. Last week, the private U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea released The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps, a chillingly comprehensive description of Kim Jong Il's hellish penal system. Written by veteran human rights investigator David Hawk, the report draws on interviews with 30 former guards and inmates, including escapees forcibly repatriated from China. Among their revelations: